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J. Hamilton

@juliahamilton.bsky.social
760 followers 641 following 669 posts

Unitarian Universalist Minister in Santa Barbara. Would like to post about the struggle to be human in a beautiful and heartbreaking world. But probably mostly politics. Also sometimes food and art.

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J. Hamilton @juliahamilton.bsky.social · 6h
I've always felt moved to share a name with this amazing woman (my middle/last is her name):
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J. Hamilton @juliahamilton.bsky.social · 17h
Jesus knows that the only appropriate roles for women are "mother" and "whore"
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J. Hamilton @juliahamilton.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Likewise!
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J. Hamilton @juliahamilton.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
I have a teen as well, and it's hard to make the case for progress. I tell her now that it's more like an eternal tug of war - wirh work, we can pull the flag over towards justice and compassion, but we can't ever let go of the rope...
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J. Hamilton @juliahamilton.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
I discovered so many great artists with your posts - Today it was Meret Oppenheim!
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J. Hamilton @juliahamilton.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
But today we are watching things we had accomplished and progress we had made be destroyed/revoked/rolled back. Its not better or worse, but it is different and so very, very disheartening and depressing.
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J. Hamilton @juliahamilton.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
I think there is a different stress that comes with things being taken away/regression. In the 60s it was fighting for progress, to put an end to horrible conditions and practices. End Jim Crow. End patriarchal rules. Gay Liberation.
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J. Hamilton @juliahamilton.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
If you love photography and are not following Dean Frey on bsky, you should be! @dean.bsky.social
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J. Hamilton @juliahamilton.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
it sickens me that the headline is "child sex scandal" and not "child abuse". A sex scandal is when you get got in an affair. This was straight up abuse.
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J. Hamilton @juliahamilton.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
I realize my first comment sounded a little harsh - I've just been hearing from so many of my professor friends about their frustration with the culture of individual ego in academia. But I don't think its limited to the academy, of course. The struggle to collaborate runs through many disciplines.
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J. Hamilton @juliahamilton.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
How much of this lack of a collaborative ethic can be traced back to some of the major faultlines in academia, which seems to foster a lot of individual, ego-driven games instead of rewarding collective progress? Writing a book and going to conferences /= collaborative thinking.
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J. Hamilton @juliahamilton.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Both the book and the series are fantastic!
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J. Hamilton @juliahamilton.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
If you haven't read lucille clifton's poem "lorena" now is a good time to discover it:
lorena 

it lay in my palm soft and trembled
as a new bird and i thought about
authority and how it always insisted
on itself, how it was master
of the man, how it measured him, never
was ignored or denied and how it promised
there would be sweetness if it was obeyed
just like the saints do, like the angels,
and i opened the window and held out my
uncupped hand. i swear to god,
I thought it could fly
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crimsongash.bsky.social @crimsongash.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Dangerous heat advisory for LA, Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties from Friday Oct 2nd to Thursday Oct 8th.
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J. Hamilton @juliahamilton.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Excellent article beyond the legal questions:
slate.com
The “Cornell Seven” Rape Case Has Ignited the Country. Let’s Talk About What We’re Actually Talking About Here.
The district attorney has reopened the criminal case.
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southpaw @nycsouthpaw.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Executing prisoners is not a legitimate power of government, despite its long and barbaric history, and we should put an end to it. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/30/u...
nytimes.com
Tennessee Death Row Inmate Christa Pike Still Alive After Attempts to Execute Her, Lawyers Say (Gift Article)
Christa Pike was convicted of murdering a classmate in 1995. It was not clear what went wrong in the execution or what her current medical condition was.
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Matthew Dowd @matthewjdowd.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Latest WSJ poll: "63% want to pause AI development 61% want a billionaire wealth tax 59% want Medicare for All 57% want a $20 minimum wage 58% want to end U.S. military aid to Israel" This is the center of the country politically. it is time all adjust to this political spectrum, esp. media.
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J. Hamilton @juliahamilton.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Klaatu barada nikto
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J. Hamilton @juliahamilton.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
We also need to remind folks that "are you into this?" and "Do you like this?" can be some of the sexiest things to hear in an intimate moment. It's not at all the joykill that some guys frame it as. It's not that hard, and it often makes everything that follows better.
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J. Hamilton @juliahamilton.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
"All I wanna do is make speaches" is probably the truest thing he's ever said from a podium.
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J. Hamilton @juliahamilton.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
This is also one of Mamdani's skills - seeing the pain points and going there to address them. Even if it's a small as a pothole. It makes people feel seen and heard.
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Charlie Warzel @cwarzel.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
There is a moment at the very very end of Abdul El-Sayed's podcast with Ezra Klein (book recommendation section) where he talks about the idea of "speaking truth to pain" and this will be staying with me for an extremely long time. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/25/o...
But there’s also something about truth to pain. We talk a lot about truth to power, but I think it’s actually a lot harder to speak truth to pain. I say that as someone who went to medical school, realizing that in a lot of our politics right now, we’ve got to get a lot better at speaking truth to pain if we’re going to get through some of these challenges that we have.

What does “truth to pain” mean?

It’s one thing to look power in the eye and say: You’re wrong about this. But there’s a way in which pain is very difficult to reason with. Because when somebody is in their pain, they’re in their trauma. They see that pain, and they may not see what’s causing it.

I remember just very explicitly being in a trauma ward with a gunshot wound patient and watching this big guy with his hand on his gunshot wound. All the folks are trying to pull his hand off his pain, that point of his gunshot wound, this clear vulnerability.

And this emergency room doctor had the presence of mind to be like: Everyone, stop. And she looks him in the eyes, and she’s like: I get that really hurts, and I’m so sorry that you’re here. You don’t want to be here. We don’t want you to be here. But if you don’t let us fix this, you could die. So I’m going to take your hand, and I’m going to move it off, OK? Because I need to get there so that you can live.

She was speaking truth to pain. He understands he’s at the hospital, he needs care, but he also doesn’t want anybody to touch the wound. Which is a natural thing. And I think it is a really great metaphor for how we think about a lot of these challenges we talked about today.
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Acid Rain @bearysweet.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
The colder autumn nights in Germany coaxes this magnificent eagle, Oropherion, to spend his nights in his heated indoor winter aviary. This is an African Martial Eagle (Polemaetus bellicosus), the largest eagle species native to Africa. (Cr @birdsofprey_nathalie_denolf) #birds #eagle
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Ned Resnikoff @resnikoff.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
I think about this interview with the distinguished philosopher Conan O'Brien a lot. I actually think this is a healthy way to live your life! www.nytimes.com/2019/01/14/a...
Is this how you want to go out, with a show that gets smaller and smaller until it’s gone?

Maybe that’s O.K. I think you have more of a problem with that than I do. [Laughs.] At this point in my career, I could go out with a grand, 21-gun salute, and climb into a rocket and the entire Supreme Court walks out and they jointly press a button, I’m shot up into the air and there’s an explosion and it’s orange and it spells, “Good night and God love.” In this culture? Two years later, it’s going to be, who’s Conan? This is going to sound grim, but eventually, all our graves go unattended.

You’re right, that does sound grim.

Sorry. Calvin Coolidge was a pretty popular president. I’ve been to his grave in Vermont. It has the presidential seal on it. Nobody was there. And by the way, I’m the only late-night host that has been to Calvin Coolidge’s grave. I think that’s what separates me from the other hosts.

I had a great conversation with Albert Brooks once. When I met him for the first time, I was kind of stammering. I said, you make movies, they live on forever. I just do these late-night shows, they get lost, they’re never seen again and who cares? And he looked at me and he said, [Albert Brooks voice] “What are you talking about? None of it matters.” None of it matters? “No, that’s the secret. In 1940, people said Clark Gable is the face of the 20th Century. Who [expletive] thinks about Clark Gable? It doesn’t matter. You’ll be forgotten. I’ll be forgotten. We’ll all be forgotten.” It’s so funny because you’d think that would depress me. I was walking on air after that.
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J. Hamilton @juliahamilton.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
It's ok for different problems to need different solutions. Cancer and MS are both awful diseases, but require different treatments. Antisemitism is not misogyny is not anti-blackness is not Islamophobia, etc. But they are all real and all need to be addressed. Good for Mamdani for doing the work.
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J. Hamilton @juliahamilton.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
oh no. This makes me so sad.
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Jonathan Eisen @phylogenomics.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Free tomatoes - Road 29 and Highway 113 in Davis CA
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J. Hamilton @juliahamilton.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
I'll start: A guy putting a big fish into a small aquarium.
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J. Hamilton @juliahamilton.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Can someone start a thread of "What has more views than Trump's YouTube Channel:"
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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 28/09/2026
"Trump has an instinctive admiration for authoritarian leaders, a quasi-mystical belief in his own judgement of character, and a bone-deep commitment to never listening to a briefing. The result is diplomacy by dictatorial whim."
publicnotice.co
Trump loves Xi because he wants to be him
Kowtowing to tyrants makes him think he’s strong.
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Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Yeah, it doesn’t seem like the NYT has given any coverage to the frat gang rape scandal at Cornell. Not as important as Oberlin’s banh mi or Harvard’s eating clubs I guess
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J. Hamilton @juliahamilton.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Boys will be boys, amirite? No news there. 🤬
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Indivisible Santa Barbara @indivisiblesb.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
On Thurs 9/24, 2 CHP officers violated the 1st Amendment right to free speech of members of Santa Barbara Indivisible. The CHP ordered that a sign reading "86 47" had to be removed from a local overpass protest. Read more at the SB Independent: buff.ly/JFRhGdL and at edhat SB: buff.ly/y6pLge3
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J. Hamilton @juliahamilton.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Information you can use!
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J. Hamilton @juliahamilton.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
In case you are wondering, no one in CA likes Newsom. We need to nip his candidacy in the bud.
jezebel.com
Gavin Newsom Is the 2028 Candidate For Suckers
Decision Desk HQ analyzed Newsom's numbers earlier this year and found he is less popular than RFK Jr. and that bastion of charisma, JD Vance.
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J. Hamilton @juliahamilton.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
I wish we could let influencers/pundits/commentators who got it all wrong and "change" just fade into the woodwork. Give them thier "oops" and then turn away. I feel the same way about the ex-tradwives. Learn your life lesson and then just...go live your life, without attention. Like everyone else.
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J. Hamilton @juliahamilton.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
AI Owners do not *want* morality built into the foundation of their systems. They want an AI's ability to exploit vulnerabilities to remain intact. They want ethics to be a secondary overlay, and therefor malleable and editable. A baked-in ethical code would limit their divine right to power.
the-independent.com
An OpenAI system has gone rogue again – and it is the most panic-inducing yet
‘Our models took actions we did not intend,’ ChatGPT maker admits after latest outrage
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Celeste Headlee @celesteheadlee.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
So, Banksy bought a used yacht, repaired it and retrofitted it to serve as a rescue boat to save migrants in the central Mediterranean. The whole project cost the artist $860,000. Since 2020, the boat has saved more than 3,800 people. londondaily.com/banksy-funds...
londondaily.com
Banksy funds refugee rescue boat operating in Mediterranean - London Daily
Exclusive: UK artist finances bright pink motor yacht that set sail in secrecy to avoid being intercepted by authorities
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J. Hamilton @juliahamilton.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Kristin is my friend and she is awesome and a total badass irl!
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J. Hamilton @juliahamilton.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
If you are not following William Shakespeare on bsky, you should be.
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Dr. Stephanie @punkrockscience.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
The fact that every major news outlet includes vocal tics and hesitations when it’s a woman saying “like” and not when it’s a man saying “um” is itself wicked telling.
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J. Hamilton @juliahamilton.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Funny how in his mind a book on white supremacy isn't about white people.
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Jessica Valenti @jessicavalenti.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
I really hope people understand that stories like this are not anomalies or “mistakes.” They’re not the result of hospitals misunderstanding the law or legislative growing pains. This is simply what happens when you allow the government to interfere in pregnancy.
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NY Times Pitchbot @nytpitchbot.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Civil engineers say it would be catastrophic to put a military target in the middle of an urban traffic circle. An AI video shared by Natalie Harp shows it would be super badass. For busy presidents planning triumphal arches, it can be hard to know who to trust.
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Pam Spaulding @pamspaulding.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Yup... 🦋 bsky.app/profile/ther...
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Xanthe van Lambtonworm 🐉️🎃️ @satyrs.eu · 17/09/2026
NEW CAT JUST DROPPED on.natgeo.com/JRuaGj
on.natgeo.com
Meet the First New Cat Species Discovered in 100 Years
A small, spotted tiger cat from Bolivia may just be the beginning of a wave of new small cat species.
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J. Hamilton @juliahamilton.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Same planet, different worlds. This article, y'all. Whoa. h/t Rebecca Solnit.
iankduncan.com
Sex, AI, and the Apocalypse - Ian Duncan
How a community devoted to thinking clearly incubated salvation stories, abusive experiments, race science, and an affection for autocracy, and why that history matters now that its alumni are asking ...
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J. Hamilton @juliahamilton.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Yes! If we don't believe we can influence people, what is even the point? Politics is not just about motivating your base, it is also is about shifting people into your field of influence, and making a compelling case for those who aren't already locked in. We can walk and chew gum at the same time.
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Shefali Luthra @shefali.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Big news: The family of Tierra Walker, who died after she couldn't get an abortion, is suing a slate of Texas actors in state court, including AG Ken Paxton. They say the state ban is unconstitutional. This is the first suit of its kind. 19thnews.org/2026/09/texa...
19thnews.org
Tierra Walker died after she couldn’t get an abortion. Her family is suing Ken Paxton
The case, filed Tuesday, argues that Texas’ near-total abortion ban violates the state and U.S. Constitutions, which “prohibit state actors from killing their citizens.”
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J. Hamilton @juliahamilton.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
The Kennedy Center is a warning from a narcissist about what will happen to our democracy: "If I can't have it, I'll tear it down."
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